Warbird Stories: P-15 Mustang “Bald Eagle”
Whether in Pennsylvania or Pensacola, airshow attendees can always count on P-51 Mustang “Bald Eagle” to be leading the formation for the Horsemen Flight Team. As the personal aircraft of Lead Pilot Jim Beasley, Jr., “Bald Eagle” has been in the Beasley family for decades and continues to inspire warbird enthusiasts across the country.
However, “Bald Eagle’s” history extends far beyond its current owners, and it honors one of the most well-known aerial units of D-Day — the 361st Fighter Group of the 8th Air Force.
The 361st began as a P-47 Thunderbolt unit and transitioned to the P-51 Mustang in May 1944, just one month before the invasion. On D-Day, the unit carried out strafing and dive-bombing missions around Normandy. In the weeks that followed, the airmen of the 361st escorted Allied bombers as the Americans and British pushed towards the heart of Germany.
The original “Bald Eagle,” on which the current Mustang’s paint scheme is based, was a P-51B flown by Lt. Robert Eckfeldt, who served in the 361st‘s 374th Fighter Squadron. Eckfeldt is credited with destroying eight enemy aircraft before completing his tour in August 1944.
Today, the invasion stripes marking “Bald Eagle’s” wings and fuselage stand out as prominently as they did to soldiers on the ground nearly 80 years ago. The bright yellow nose also marks “Bald Eagle” as a member of the 361st. This nose design was unique to the fighter group and inspired their nickname — the Yellowjackets. The eight Nazi emblems near the cockpit symbolize the Bald Eagle’s wartime victories.
The current “Bald Eagle,” a D-Model, has been owned by the Beasley family since 1979. The aircraft was built at North American Aviation’s Inglewood, California plant and accepted by the Army in Feb. 1945. A month later the plane was shipped to the United Kingdom to join the 8th Air Force. It returned to the United States after the war and served in the National Guard. In 1958 it was sold to the Nicaraguan Air Force where it was flown for five years.
In July 1963, the Mustang was flown back to Texas and passed through the hands of several owners until it was purchased by Jim Beasley, Sr. who gave it the current “Bald Eagle” design that is known to warbird fans across the country.
“I was always enamored with the P-51 Mustang,” said Beasley, Jr. “Once, we were flying across the country in his Aerostar, and I persuaded him to take a left to go down to Texas to see the Commemorative Air Force, and there was a Mustang there that was for sale. The registration number actually had his initials — 51JB — and even though I was only 10 years old at the time, I persuaded him to buy it. … That’s what started it all for me.”
Today, Beasley, Jr. continues to honor both the personal and historic legacy of “Bald Eagle” at airshows across the country, and the aircraft serves as an extension of the pilot himself.
“It’s been decades and decades of tweaking that particular machine, so it fits me. It’s like sliding into a really comfortable pair of pajamas. That’s why it’s so special — I’ve just become one with it.”
As a founding member of both the Horsemen Flight Team and the Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation, Jim Beasley, Jr. and “Bald Eagle” fly at airshows across the country, from unique heritage flight formations with the United States Air Force to the one-of-kind three-ship aerobatic flights with the Horsemen.
